CIA made scary Bin Laden toy to counter al-Qaeda influence over children

The project was eventually scrapped by the CIA (Picture: Adam Goldman/Getty Images)

News has emerged that the American CIA secretly developed an Osama bin Laden action figure in the hope that it would scare children away from al-Qaeda influence.

The figurine, code-named ‘Devil Eyes’, would be made of a heat-dissolving material that, when peeled off, would reveal a demon-like bin Laden, with facial markings and green eyes, reports the Washington Post.

The CIA teamed up with Donald Levine, a former Hasbro toy company executive and one of the industry’s top minds, hoping to use his contacts in China for the toy’s production.

The al-Qaeda leader was killed in 2011 (Picture: AP)

Levine, who passed away in May aged 86, was involved in the design of the G.I. Joe toy that was massively popular across America.

According to the Washington Post, hundreds of toys were made as part of a pre-production run and sent to Karachi in Pakistan in 2006.

But a CIA spokesperson denied the claims, telling the Post that that the toys never actually went into production.

The CIA say only prototypes were made (Picture: Adam Goldman/Getty Images)

‘To our knowledge, there were only three individual action figures ever created, and these were merely to show what a final product might look like,’ said Ryan Trapani.

‘After being presented with these examples, the CIA declined to pursue this idea and did not produce or distribute any of these action figures.

‘Furthermore, CIA has no knowledge of these action figures being produced or distributed by others.’